Paleoanthropology
is a specialized branch of physical
anthropology and
paleontology involved with the study of
ancient
human beings. Paleoanthropolgists
investigate the origin and subsequent
evolution of
humanity by examining
fossil remains and other ancient
evidence. Evolution-based paleoanthropology
holds that humanity evolved from ape-like
ancestors, and therefore the subdiscipline
frequently includes the study of living and
extinct primates. By contrast, Biblical
creation-based paleoanthropology holds that
humanity was created by God as described in
the book of
Genesis.

Secular paleontologists assert that hominids
began evolving from other
primates starting around 8 million to 6
million years ago. Evidence of
hominid activity between 8 and 2.5
million years ago usually only consists of
bone remains available for study.
Because of this very incomplete picture of
the time period from the
fossil record, various aspects of
physical anthropology (osteometry,
functional anatomy, evolutionary framework)
are essential to explain evolution during
these first millions of years. Evolution
during this time is considered as the result
of natural forces only.[1]

Creation
paleontologists look to the Bible for
insight into human history. The
creation account in the book of
Genesis tells us that humans and all
land animals were created on the same day.
This is in stark contrast to the assertions
of evolutionary paleontology, which holds
that hominids were evolving over millions of
years and Homo sapiens only appearing
a few hundred thousand years ago.[2].
The creation account also reveals that human
beings are distinct from the animals and
uniquely formed in the
image of God.[3]

Contents

Biblical

Biblical
paleoanthropology is concerned with two
separate periods of human civilization: the
humans living before the global flood and
those that lived following. The book of
Genesis begins with an account of the
original world and
its civilization that no longer exist.
Details regarding this first civilization
are minimal, except for a terse genealogy,
accounts of men like
Enoch, and reference to a mysterious
race known as the
Nephilim. Genesis reports that this
original
antediluvian civilization became
intensely wicked and for this was destroyed
by a
global flood sent by
God about 4500 years ago. No verified
fossil evidence of this preflood human
civilization has been found and it doubtful
that any trace survived the devastation.

One very important
distinction between the pre and post flood
human beings was their longevity. Prior to
the flood,
Genesis 5 records that people lived
extraordinarily long lives: routinely over
900 years.
Methuselah is known for living longer
than any other human in history, dying at
the age of 969. This longevity is believed
to be so extraordinarily long in part
because environmental conditions were
optimal for longevity before the
Earth was destroyed, perhaps maintained
by a
dense atmosphere which collapsed during
the flood. After the flood, the lengthy
human lifespans gradually declined to over
several generations. This Biblical insight
offers an explanation for the robust human
morphology seen in some post flood groups
such as the
Neanderthals and
Homo erectus.

The key post-flood
Biblical event that factors into the
development of
human races and
language is the Tower of Babel.
According to
Genesis 11 , all humans spoke the same
language immediately following the
global flood. Those who migrated to the
east and settled in the land of Shinar
decided to build a city and a great tower
out of baked bricks to make a name for
themselves. It may be argued that because
there is no archaeological evidence of
buildings from
antediluvian civilizations, the Tower of
Babel was the first major monument ever
built of which any evidence might remain.

God intentionally scattered mankind to
retard their technological advancement by
confusing their speech. The origin of the
various root
languages is presumably linked to this
event. God apparently created several unique
languages to scatter humans throughout the
world. This action almost
speciated humans into several groups
allowing physical differences to develop.
All human ancestry traces back to
Noah and his family only 4500 years ago,
and then even further back to
Adam and
Eve. We are all close relatives, and the
differences that distinguish the
human races should be considered
superficial at best.

Jonathan Sarfati comments on the
relation of these post Babel humans to so
called "cave men".

“

Also, some people
groups would be isolated from
civilization. Consider even the
typical small extended family group
today, if suddenly isolated from
civilization, e.g., on a desert
island. Many such groups would not
have the ability to smelt metals or
build houses. Therefore, they would
have to use the hardest material
available (stone) and make use of
already-existing structures (caves).
Different family groups would also
have different levels of artistic
ability. So it shouldn’t be too
difficult to accept that humans such
as
Homo erectus and
Neandertals were probably
post-Babel humans who became
isolated from major cities, and
developed certain physical
characteristics because certain
genes became fixed due to the small
population and selective factors.
The notion of a ‘stone age’ is
fallacious—rather, it’s a cave/stone
technology stage of different people
groups. Some people even today have
this level of technology, but they
live at the same time as us, and are
just as human.[4]

The differences
in morphological features of the
fossil species included in Homo,
excluding the invalid taxon Homo
habilis, are believed to
represent, among other factors,
genetic variation within the one
human kind...If fossils such as
those categorized as Homo erectus
and Neandertals were all fully
human, then the case for human
evolution essentially collapses, as
there is an unbridgeable
morphological gap between the
australopithecine apes and these
humans.[5]

”

Malcolm Bowden recommends using the
following general characteristics to help
determine whether fossil skulls are human or
ape. For a fossil skull to be identified as
human it should have a fairly large
brain capacity - over 1,000 cc's, and a
mouth positioned almost vertically under the
nose.
Apes, by contrast, have a smaller brain
capacity and a protruding muzzle. However,
he warns that
fossils and reconstructions are often
interpreted and distorted to meet
evolutionary expectations. It can be
frequently found that ape skulls are
'adjusted' to look more human, and human
skulls often rebuilt to emphasize 'ape-like'
features.[6]Bowden
adds:

“

It must be
emphasised that where there is
sufficient evidence, ALL skulls can
be identified as being either ape or
human. There are NO other classes,
for they are all the imaginings of
the evolutionary
paleaoanthropologists who insist on
concocting a string of links between
man and apes. In order to fill this
enormous gap, any ape skull is
greatly enlarged and the fossil's
'human' features exaggerated (e.g.
Pekin man and 'Lucy'), whilst human
skulls are decreased and their 'ape'
features are similary emphasised
(e.g. 1470 Man).[6]

”

Evolutionary
paleoanthropologists seek desperately to
identify a true transitional form between
man and apes, as well as the fame that can
be obtained from finding a new species of
hominid. Any fossil found with a minor
variation is claimed to be a new species - a
widespread occurrence known as taxonomic
splitting. Tim White, co-director of the
Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies at
the University of California, Berkeley,
notes these concerns. There’s been a
recent tendency to give a different name to
each of the fossils that comes out of the
ground, and that has led to what we think is
a very misleading portrayal of the biology
of human evolution.[7]
The following is a summary of some of the
species of humans declared from fossil
evidence alone.

Homo habilis = (Man with
ability or handy man). The name
"handy man" is given because of the
evidence of the use of constructed
stone tools with this species.
Average brain size of 500-800cc.
This taxon is regarded as invalid;
Being comprised of larger than
average Australopithicines and
smaller than average H. erectus
fossils.[5]

Homo erectus = (Erect Man).
Brain size 750-1225. Specimens dated
as older have a smaller average
brain size than ones dated more
recently, and some scientists
advocate placing the more recent
larger brained specimens in to a
separate species, homo ergaster.

Genus Australopithecus - Fully Ape

Australopithecines - The genus
Australopithecus is distinguished by
their very ape-like skull (thought the
teeth are more human-like than
chimpanzee-like), small brain size
(between 375 and 550cc), and
knuckle-walking stance.

Australopithecus afarensis =
southern ape from Ethiopia. After
years of controversy A. afarensis is
now known to be aligned with
gorillas by comparison of the
ramus element in the jaw and the
shoulder blades.

Controversy

Within evolutionary
circles, there is much controvery regarding
human origins. The
multiregional theory and the
Out-of-Africa theory are two separate
views debating the long-standing assertion
that modern humans descended from H.
neanderthalis and H. erectus. The
prevailing theory that humans share a common
ancestor with
chimpanzees, is also in question by
recent research which revealed that the
majority of Australopithicines and Habilines
are more closely aligned with
orangutans. This leaves humans without a
plausible ancestor.[8]

Marvin Lubenow
shows that the various alleged
‘apemen’ do not form a smooth
sequence in evolutionary ‘ages,’ but
overlap considerably. For example,
the timespan of Homo sapiens
fossils contains the timespan of the
fossils of Homo erectus,
supposedly our ancestor. Also, when
the various fossils are analyzed in
depth, they turn out not to be
transitional or even mosaic. The
morphology overlaps too—the analysis
of a number of characteristics
indicates that Homo ergaster,
H. erectus, H.
neanderthalensis as well as
H. heidelbergensis, were most
likely ‘racial’ variants of modern
man, while H. habilis and
another specimen called H.
rudolfensis were just types of
australopithecines. In fact, H.
habilis is now regarded as an
invalid name, probably caused by
assigning fragments of
australopithecines and H. erectus
fossils into this ‘taxonomic waste
bin.’[9]

”

Lubenow summarizes the
facts of the human fossil record:

“

First, fossils
that are indistinguishable from
modern humans can be traced all the
way back to 4.5 m.y.a., according to
the evolution time scale. That
suggests that true humans were on
the scene before the
australopithecines appear in the
fossil record.

Second,
Homo erectus demonstrates a
morphological consistency throughout
its two-million-year history. The
fossil record does not show erectus
evolving from something else or
evolving into something else.

Third,
anatomically modern Homo sapiens,
Neandertal, archaic Homo
sapiens, and Homo erectus
all lived as contemporaries at one
time or another. None of them
evolved from a more robust to a more
gracile condition. In fact, in some
cases (Neandertal and archaic
Homo sapiens) the more robust
fossils are the more recent fossils
in their respective categories.

Fourth, all of
the fossils ascribed to the Homo
habilis category are
contemporary with Homo erectus.
Thus, Homo habilis not only
did not evolve into Homo erectus,
it could not have evolved into
Homo erectus.

Fifth, there
are no fossils of
Australopithecus or of any other
primate stock in the proper time
period to serve as evolutionary
ancestors to humans. As far as we
can tell from the fossil record,
when humans first appear in the
fossil record they are already
human. It is this abrupt appearance
of our ancestors in morphologically
human form that makes the human
fossil record compatible with the
concept of
special creation.
[10]

”

Malcolm Bowden suggests that the
following skulls should be provisionally
reclassified as either Humans or Apes:[6]

HUMAN BONES —
(Homo sapiens)

APE FOSSILS

Java man's
leg bones.

Homo
habilis

Vertesszollos
skull fragment.

Peking man
skulls.

Swanscombe
skull pieces.

Piltdown jaw
(modern fossil)

Fontechevade
skull pieces.

All
Australopithecenes

1470 Man

Australopithecus afarensis
('Lucy')

Piltdown
skull

Von
Koenigswald's Pithecanthropus II,
III and IV

(robustus)

Cro-Magnon
Man

Peking man
upper cave skulls.

Peking ten
skeletons

Solo man

Dubois'
Wadjak skulls

Rhodesian man

Chellean
man's skull?

R. Leakey's
KNMER 3733 skull

Kow Swamp
Homo erectus skeletons

All
Neanderthal skeletons

Laetolil
(footprints)

Fraudulant or Erroneous Fossils

Piltdown Man (Eoanthropus dawsoni)
Fraudulent
fossil that was filed-down to look
human-like and chemically treated to
give it the appearance of age. It was
hailed as proof of Darwin's theory for
forty years.

Nebraska Man (Hesperopithecus
haroldcookii). Refers to a
poorly-preserved fossilized tooth
incorrectly identified as belonging to a
primate in the 1920s. A consensus was
later reached that it belonged to a
peccary (wild pig).

Java Man (Pithecanthropus erectus)
Controversial fossil claimed in 1891 by
Eugene Dubois who was the first
person to deliberately search for
human ancestors. Dubois was a former
student of
Ernst Haeckel who became intent on
discovering the missing link his mentor
believed had evolved somewhere in Africa
or East Asia.

Earliest hominid: Not a hominid at all?
The earliest known hominid fossil, which
dates to about 7 million years ago, is
actually some kind of ape, according to
an international team of researchers led
by the University of Michigan. The
finding, they say, suggests scientists
should rethink whether we actually
descended from apes resembling
chimpanzees, which are considered our
closest relatives. University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor. June 19, 2006

Human
Evolution Quotes

"The vast majority of artist's
conceptions are based more on imagination than on evidence..Artists
must create something between an ape and a human being; the older
the specimen is said to be, the more ape-like they make it."
- "Anthro Art", Science
Digest April 1981 pg 41.

"No-one can be sure just what any
extinct hominoid looked like." Donald
C Johnson and Maitland A Edey, Lucy: The beginnings of Humankind
(1981) p 286.

"The main problem in reconstructing
the origins of man is lack of fossil evidence: all there is could
be displayed on a dinner table." -
New Scientist 20 May 1982 pg 491.